Convicted felon and President-elect Donald Trump's new sidekick, Elon "Leon" Musk, is poised to direct government cost-cutting efforts while preparing to suck up a ton of new subsidies.
Billionaire investor of his family wealth Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk is likely to garner a whole new raft of government subsidies and contracts for his many businesses, which exist on the back of the US taxpayer—Tesla with tax credits and renewable energy incentives; SpaceX lives off government contracts, as does the Boring Company. All his businesses are cleverly taking public funds. Is it more likely that DOGE, with its unrealistic and unfounded claims about government cost-cutting, is a good faith effort or a gateway to more money for Musk's businesses?
The first Trump FCC tried to give Musk nearly a billion dollars to deliver expensive Starlink access to some traffic medians and airport parking lots. The Biden FCC clawed back those subsidies, (correctly) worrying that the service couldn't deliver consistent speeds, arguing (also correctly) that if we're going to spend taxpayer money on broadband, affordable fiber (and fixed wireless and 5G) should be prioritized.
Elon Musk (who purportedly hates subsidies… while routinely gobbling them up) and Republicans threw a giant, protracted hissy fit, falsely claiming that the Biden administration was unfairly targeting Musk for retribution. They held a bunch of show hearings and seeded right wing media with bottomless whining about how a billionaire didn't get showered with billions in taxpayer subsidies. You know, populism (?).
Trump's new FCC boss Brendan Carr (R, AT&T) has acknowledged that it's probably too late to restore Musk's $886 million in original subsidies. But there are $42.5 billion in infrastructure bill subsidies headed to the states, and Republicans (who voted against this bill and yet repeatedly take credit for its myriad looming benefits) will make every effort possible to redirect as much of that money to their BFFs.
TechDirt
Previously:
• Alt National Park Service has a message for DOGE leaders
